The strike killed a woman who accompanied the team and wounded six people, among them four children, said Bryansk region acting governor Yegor Kovalchuk. Russian authorities did not say how old the minors were.

Ukraine has in recent months stepped up drone strikes on Russia in retaliation for Moscow's almost daily air raids since the beginning of the four-year war. "The Armed Forces of Ukraine, using airplane-type drones, attacked the bus of the Gomel children's football team, which was going on holiday to Gelendzhik (on Russia's Black Sea coast)", Kovalchuk said on social media. He added that all wounded were taken to a local hospital and the rest of the passengers would return home soon.

Gomel lies in the south-east corner of Moscow-allied Belarus, near the Russian and Ukrainian borders. Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, opened a terrorism probe and said the total number of wounded was to be confirmed. The bus carried 44 passengers, 28 of them children, it added. Both Kyiv and Moscow deny targeting civilians in the conflict that spiralled into Europe's deadliest since World War II.

On Monday, a massive Russian drone and missile barrage killed 11 people across Ukraine and damaged a UNESCO-listed monastery in Kyiv. Talks on ending the war remain deadlocked, while fighting at the front was effectively at a standstill. (Bssnews)